Last November, Land Rover issued a press release about its latest investment in vehicle safety, calling on owners of post-2018 Land Rovers and Range Rovers to install a free advanced safety pack. Things have gotten so bad, with sales affected and vehicles becoming almost uninsurable, that the Solihull 4×4 manufacturer now even offers Range Rover customers arranged insurance through its own scheme.
Around the same time, a London solicitor, let’s just call him Mr.
“No one was surprised that the original was stolen,” he says. “I told the police it was a V8 and they asked where I lived. They weren’t surprised when I said Westminster, they said it was probably in Nigeria by now. Nor did the insurance company, which paid out the £70,000 in six weeks, no questions asked.
“When I found another V8 to buy, I realized why. The insurance quote was £26,000… One of our clerks had his Range Rover Sport stolen. He lives in Essex and when he came to insure his replacement it was the same story.”
Mr. X now drives a Range Rover hybrid. “It’s not a Range Rover model I particularly like,” he says, “but the V8 has less than a third of the fuse and I refuse to let anyone else determine what make of car I drive. I’ve got a big yellow steering wheel lock, which I hope might be a deterrent.”
“This is ridiculous,” he adds, “this is turning into an epidemic.”
It also rejects Land Rover’s safety update bulletins. “Once a month we are invited to go to a dealer to get the software updated, but they want you to drive your car to the middle of nowhere to get it done, it takes all day, there is no spare car and you get it done. make your own way to get there and back; “This is such a pain.”
Premium theft epidemic
It should be noted that the problem of premium vehicle theft is not limited to Land Rover and Range Rover, Lexus, Mercedes, BMW and Audi models also suffer. Motor insurer AXA UK says Lexus thefts have increased by 22 per cent between 2021 and 2023, with RX and NX models being the most targeted. While Land Rover thefts increased by 80 percent in the same period, 75 percent of these thefts were Range Rovers.
The bad guys’ perspective has changed, with a 144 percent increase in Hyundai thefts and a 106 percent increase in Kia thefts in the last three months compared to the same period last year.
“Keyless car theft or relay theft for newer makes and models is at an all-time high and unfortunately shows no signs of slowing down,” says David Pearce, direct retail sales manager at AXA UK.
“This is particularly evident with the increase in theft of models such as Range Rover and Lexus in recent years. Technology adds a further layer of complexity to claims, with many cars now containing technical parts that can be harder to obtain and replace, as well as more expensive.”
Close to 100,000 vehicles were stolen in the UK in 2022 and this year’s total is likely to be higher. According to an FOI request on behalf of Fleet News According to the magazine, London was the worst place, with 26,117 vehicles stolen in 2022, a rate of 291 per 100,000 people. It was followed by the West Midlands with 12,223 (417 per 100,000) and Greater Manchester with 7,453 (264 per 100,000). West Yorkshire was next with 4,621 thefts, Essex with 3,771 thefts and South Yorkshire with 3,257 thefts.
According to Octane Finance, the second most stolen car after the Ford Fiesta was the Range Rover, followed by the Ford Focus, VW Golf and Land Rover Discovery.
an open problem
Land Rover clearly has a problem, but a spokesman said it was a matter of supply and demand; Too many people want a Range Rover for the factory to supply, so criminal gangs move in to fill the gap.
It’s a bit of an odd perspective, but Land Rover also claims that its new Range Rovers and Range Rover Sport models have a theft rate of just 0.07 per cent (0.3 per cent for Defenders) and that its vehicles “consistently exceed the standards set by Thatcham”. “The UK’s leading automotive risk intelligence company”.
However, stolen Range Rovers, Land Rovers and other premium SUV models are becoming a hot topic among the wealthy middle class, one of Land Rover’s key target markets. .
“We started parking our Range Rover at the back of the house,” said a Berkshire motor trader. “As our vehicles are insured under a group policy, I don’t see much of an increase in insurance premiums, but I have had customers who have given up on Range Rovers.”
In fact, we spoke to a former Range Rover owner living in Essex who was quoted an insurance premium of “well over £30,000 a year”.
cat and mouse game
Thatcham doesn’t come out of this situation very well either, because it’s clear that her effort wasn’t good enough. In a statement, the organization highlights a wide range of reasons for increased car crime; These include organized crime gangs, overcrowded police forces, the proliferation of premium cars, and internet and social media platforms that allow gangs to share vehicle vulnerabilities and digital tools. reverse engineered devices.
He adds: “When first introduced in the early 1990s, the New Vehicle Safety Assessment (NVSA) was extremely effective in adding layers of mechanical security to thwart opportunistic criminals, significantly reducing theft figures from a peak of over 620,000 thefts a year.
“The standards set by NVSA are still the most stringent in the world. “But the process of identifying and closing digital vulnerabilities remains a cat-and-mouse game.”
Interesting, but that doesn’t mean much to Mr.
“They have become uninsurable,” said a former police officer from one of Britain’s biggest car crime squads. “Land Rover spent more than £10 million a few years ago to update its keyless unlocking systems and its vehicles were impregnable for nearly three months before gangs figured out how to get around it all.”
Now the “cat-and-mouse game” of police and robbers has begun a new round with criminal gangs, many of whom come from Eastern Europe; He steals high-value cars, strips them and assembles them in places the police call “slaughterhouses.” We place them in containers and send them out. These parts are often fitted to defective and retired versions of the same models and are sold repaired in the UK, Africa and Europe.
How do they get away with this?
Exploiting vulnerabilities in vehicles’ own locking and security systems is one of the most common methods. This occurs by interrupting the communication between the key fob and the vehicle and spoofing the signal to unlock the vehicle itself.
There have been several generations of such thefts, from disrupting the locking signal as the owner drives away, leaving the vehicle unlocked and defenseless, to using a large antenna hidden in the straps of a backpack to “wake up” the key and amplify its sound. It sends a signal from your pocket or a kiosk at home to the target vehicle, which then unlocks itself.
Updates have been introduced to this vulnerable technology; They installed an acknowledgment signal system from the vehicle to the key fob and performed complex calculations on the key fob signal delay, but within weeks the thieves devised a sneaky loophole.
Equipment to do this is widely available on the internet, with advertisements for keychain duplicators and remote code grabbers that will work with or without the key present. Most of these companies operate in China, and another, based in Lebanon, openly advertises remote-controlled radio code catchers, warning that they are designed “for legal use only,” although it is difficult to imagine any legal use for such products. .
Another method is to gain access to and reverse engineer a dealer’s emergency start switch, which is designed to allow a well-intentioned dealer to help customers who have lost or locked their keys inside. Again, there is equipment on the internet that can do this.
Another is to cut open the bodywork (Range Rover’s plastic hatchback) and access the car’s main can-bus internal communications cables and the cables from, guess where, your own key fob duplicator.
Once the bad guys gain access, they break in, start the engine and activate a briefcase-sized jammer that suppresses signals from the vehicle’s own GPS and any third-party anti-theft software, and drive the car into a warehouse. Once there, the thieves activate an even larger jamming device with approximately 30 antennas to locate and remove SIM cards and GPS signaling devices, which can be hidden throughout the car, often in the ceiling or floor.
Victimless crime?
“There was an attitude in the police force that insurance helped,” said our former police officer, “but that’s not true, car crime is not victimless, everyone pays more insurance premiums and these gangs often get involved. other bad crimes too.”
Our insurance is on the rise, with Confused.com reporting a 58 per cent increase in the last 12 months, with the average cost of comprehensive cover now £924 (an increase of £338 on last year).
While the Association of British Insurers responded to the issue off-the-cuff, saying “The cost of insuring any vehicle will depend on the risk factors involved,” Thatcham points out another issue that many people are talking about and which should strike fear into hearts. Range Rover owners
“As they have done for the past 100 years or more, insurers often base premiums on driver-related risk factors, from driving history to age and location. However, the balance of risk is starting to shift from the driver to the vehicle, disrupting the current insurance model.”
Thatcham attributes this to battery powered cars; these are often canceled after fairly minor shunts due to the potential risk of short circuits. The trend of modern cars being connected to the internet poses new challenges in terms of time and repair costs. The shortage of spare parts and the accompanying price increases and increases in second-hand vehicle prices also play a role in this. “The only way to solve these issues is through concerted cross-industry action focused on ensuring sustainability in vehicle design while taking a thoughtful approach to the unexpected repair and safety challenges posed by new vehicle technologies.”
But what can you do for now?
“If they want it, they get it, whatever it is. But if you make it harder to steal yours, they can move on to the next one,” says our ex-cop. “I recommend a big yellow steering wheel lock.”
Coincidentally, the winning wheel was locked Auto Express magazine’s comprehensive review The Stoplock Pro Elite is large and yellow and retails for £47.99. If I had a Range Rover I’d seriously look into it…